Review: Susan Mallery – Barefoot Season

Barefoot Season:

The Blackberry Island Inn has always been a refuge for Michelle and Carly. Once best friends and through twist of fate stepsister, these women have experienced the highs of their friendship and the lows of betrayal. Now they are finding themselves in a predicament.

Michelle is returning home after serving for 10 years for her country, physically and emotionally broken woman.  She is needing a place to heal both physically and emotionally, but the home she returns to is not what she was expecting, and she is forced to deal with the past she had been trying to outrun.

Carly had her life turned upside-down by the people she thought were supposed to love her. Just days before her wedding, she found her fiancée in bed with whom she thought was supposed to be her best friend, a best friend who conveniently escaped the island and went off to war. Carly’s life crumbled after that through further betrayals and it was at the Blackberry Island Inn that she found a way to try and heal and provide for her baby. Michelle’s mother, Brenda, in return for dedicating her life to helping Brenda run it, promised that same inn to her

Now they both have to find a way to heal from their past, and work together to rebuild their futures…

As always Susan Mallery grips you into the worlds that she creates, and doesn’t let go again until you’re done with the book…and sometimes not even then, I find myself thinking about these characters and their lives for days after I have read their books.  I’m not generally a huge fan of Women’s Fiction, preferring a little more romance, but Mrs. Mallery has a way of making you forget what genre your reading!  And for those of you like myself that like romance in their books, you won’t be disappointed in that area either!

This is one of those books that will stick with me, one those books that you feel like you know the characters, and one of those books that I can relate to a lot of the content (and so can any women with a best friend…or former best friends).  I highly recommend this book, and for that matter, any of Susan Mallery’s books!

4 out of 5 Orchids

*Review by Shelly

*Title provided through NetGalley for an honest review

Carolyn Brown – One Hot Cowboy Wedding

Spikes & Spurs Series:

Book 4:

One Hot Cowboy Wedding: Ace Riley and Jasmine King

Review:

This book can be summed up nicely in that this is a great, fun and light read. This is a feel good novel with sexy cowboys and sassy southern women. Ace is the quintessential feel good cowboy who has dated half the female population of Texas, but has done it in such a way that only a charmer such as Ace can pull off. You can’t not like Ace, he puts all out there along with his barbed wire tattoo to remind him that no women can get past his tattoo and into his heart. He’s nothing if not honest, and you got to respect a guy who lets you know where he stands going into it. But what you probably never saw coming was that Ace is a total romantic, the dates he plans for Jazzy make you do an AW moment! Little by little the barbed wire on his heart starts to crumble and he never thought he would fall for his best friend.

After the debacle that was Jasmine’s previous engagement she has sworn off all men, so proposing to Ace, seemed like the perfect option. She could help him save his ranch and since she isn’t going to date no harm, no foul, but when the wedding is nationally publicized all of Texas now knows that she is married and to Ace. Her nice peaceful year has been blown apart.  Jasmine is a feisty, high spirited woman you can’t help but respect. She loves her friends, she loves her parents, she loves owning her restaurant and she loves Ace?!?  Understandably, Jasmine is a bit gun shy when comes to men especially a good timing cowboy like Ace. Jasmine has plenty of sizzle and spice to keep up with Ace.

If you want to good time novel with sexy cowboys pick this book up. Actually pick this whole series up, it’s a good timing series with lots of spunk and lots of cowboys.

Rating: 4 Orchids